What is Aspergers Syndrome?

by Nicky Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:36 am

~In my (Nicky) years of researching Aspergers, there has been some improvements into diagnosing Aspergers children and better explaintory's than there was 10yrs ago. I'm going to give u the medical research terms and then explain it as best as i can from my experiences as a parent with a child with ASD and from my son's Matthew experiences as I thought that would give u a greater understanding then. Anything you may have a lack of understanding or wish to discuss certain areas, etc, then please feel free to leave a posting up after this.

Background into Aspergers

The term "Autism Spectrum Disorders/(ASD)" is used to describe the group of pervasive developmental disorders characterised by abnormalities in social interaction and communication and by a restricted range of repetitive behaviour and interests. These abnormalities are a pervasive feature of the disorder eg usually present across many settings. It is now understood that these core difficulties can manifest in individuals with varying degrees of behavioural severity, language and intellectual abilities. The presentation can be extremely variable and therefore this group of disorders is best considered as a "spectrum".

The current prevalence of ASD is around 6 to 10 in 1,000 in younger children. Boys are more commonly affected than girls. The number of children with a diagnosis of Autism/ASD appears to be increasing. This is in part explained by increased public and raising awareness and the recognition of the broader spectrum of disorder thus encompassing more children with a range of abilities.

~in other words, an Aspergers child has alot of trouble coping with society and mixing with society (people in general), they start showing signs of not coping in many different ways, BUT each Asperger Child is unique in their own ways, they all cope/not cope in so many different ways. What one child does, isn't necessarily the same way how another would deal with it. For example the way Matt is when we go shopping, he goes very quiet, sometimes on a "bad day" he'll just plonk himself on the floor and starts rocking like mad. On other days, he'll ask really rude and abrupt questions. and it can so embarrassing for me, then i have to take the person to one side and exlain, "he has aspergers" and people sort of look at me as "Ah right" but they have no actual understanding what Aspergers is.

What are the symptons?

Affected children have difficulties in making sense of the social world and the subtleties of verbal and non verbal communication. They have difficulty understanding the feelings and emotions of other people and present with a restricted range of interests often with stereotyped repetitive behaviours. They may also experience odd responses to sensory stimuli. Approx 10% of individuals with Autism may demonstrate an area of relative strengths/ability.

The spectrum includes individuals who are severely impaired with no useful speech, to those considered "high functioning". This latter term can be misleading in that an individual of "high" intellectual ability may be significantly impaired in terms of social skills. Disorders that currently exist within the international classification systems such as Asperger syndrome, Infantile Autism and Childhood Disintegrative disorder are considered to lie on the "spectrum".

~ What this means basically is, each child with a diagnosis of ASD show different symptons of ASD. Each child is unique in the ways of how they behave, how they cope/not cope. Every single one of them is unique in their own ways which is what makes them special and hard to diagnose. The main signs really is, they don't behave is the same way as a "normal" child does cope when dealing in situations they're not used to. Some Aspergers are more intelligent in some areas than other "normal" kids will be. Like Matt is absolutely amazing at playing games & computers and hes great at maths. But thats cos its all factual, u see. What he sees on the screens, its there and hes there with it. But ask him to write a story of his head and expect him to write it, he just isn't capable of it. He has absolutely no imagination at all.
The main symptons of Aspergers is the have no understanding what emotions are. How to control them. And the fact that other people have emotions is quite literally beyond their understanding.
The NAS (National Autistic Society) says:
Asperger syndrome is mostly a 'hidden disability'. This means that you can't tell that someone has the condition from their outward appearance. People with the condition have difficulties in three main areas. They are:

* social communication
* social interaction
* social imagination.

While there are similarities with autism, people with Asperger syndrome have fewer problems with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence. They do not usually have the accompanying learning disabilities associated with autism, but they may have specific learning difficulties. These may include dyslexia and dyspraxia or other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy.

With the right support and encouragement, people with Asperger syndrome can lead full and independent lives.

And these are the best descriptions i could find to be honest. From my experience with Matt, its not as simple as balck and white. But then he also has SEBD (social emotional behavioural difficulties) and he also has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and he also has Dyslexia. And from what I've seen with my own eyes, these are very common with most Asergers.